Rare Photos: Giant Squid Eaten by Sperm Whale

Eating on the Go

Photograph by Tony Wu, Barcroft/Fame Pictures

Carrying the remains of a roughly 30-foot (9-meter) giant squid in her jaws, a female sperm whale, with a calf at her side, swims near the surface off Japan's Bonin Islands (map) in the northwestern Pacific. Taken on October 15, this and other "absolutely sensational" new pictures offer rare proof of the sperm whale's taste for giant squid, said giant squid expert Steve O'Shea of the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand.

The pictures may also reveal that adult sperm whales, which grow up to 59 feet (18 meters) long, use pieces of their prizes to teach youngsters how to catch their own, O'Shea told National Geographic News.

The group of five adults and one calf kept diving deep in unison, photographer Tony Wu told the Daily Mail. "It seemed as if the adult whales were trying to teach the baby to dive and also to eat squid," he said.

Saving It for Later?

Eating on the run, a female sperm whale carries the remains of a giant squid off the Bonin Islands, about 621 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of Tokyo, on October 15, 2009.

The whale almost certainly carried the giant morsel up from the dark depths of the nearby Osagawara Trench, a favorite hunting ground of sperm whales. The whales routinely dive for an hour or more to depths of up to 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) in pursuit of giant squid, which are thought to rarely venture higher than 1,000 feet (300 meters) below sea level.

Battles between giant squid and sperm whales often leave the whales scarred with sucker marks. Until recently, such wounds--along with analysis of sperm whale stomach contents--were the only proof of the whales' appetite for giant squid.

A Whale of a Party

Photograph by Tony Wu, Barcroft/Fame Pictures

A female sperm whale, carrying a piece of giant squid in her mouth, leads a gargantuan dinner party in the northwestern Pacific on October 15, 2009. Sperm whales are voracious hunters of squid—the species as a whole consumes an estimated 110 million tons a year.

Aiding the sperm whale in its hunts is the world's largest brain, which is surrounded by patches of spermaceti. Once used in candles and ointments, the white, waxy substance was long ago mistaken for the whale's sperm, leading to the species' curious name.

Letting Go

Photograph by Tony Wu, Barcroft/Fame Pictures

Part of a sperm whale's catch--a giant squid--drifts free in one of the rare pictures captured in the Pacific on October 15, 2009.

The whale at right was also photographed carrying the giant morsel in her mouth--rare evidence of the whales' taste for giant squid, which some researchers say can grow to 43 feet (13 meters) long and weigh more than 600 pounds (272 kilograms).

The whales use sophisticated echolocation--similar to sonar--to find their quarry in the pitch blackness of the deep.

A Deep-Sea Arm

Photograph by Tony Wu, Barcroft/Fame Pictures

An 11.5-foot-long (3.5-meter-long) leftover, this giant squid arm was recovered at the surface from another sperm whale hunt on October 14, 2009, in the same place as feeding frenzy photographed underwater the next day.